| From: | Quicksilver <jhurley1@****.STEVENS-TECH.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Armor Again |
| Date: | Fri, 10 Mar 1995 10:20:33 -30000 |
> Paul Jonathan Adam writes:
>
> [Helmets]
>
> > I basically rate them at whatever you're wearing. I know it's unrealistic
> > that the same +1/+1 helmet will 'be' a 3/2 if all you have is an armour
> > vest and 8/4 if you're in form-fit III and an armour jacket, but it's also
> > quicker and easier to play and avoids arguments about exact type of helmet
> > and so on.
>
> It does do things simply, but I'm a picky little perfectionist, so I'm
> looking for something else.
Let's take a look at helmets... A helmet has to be pretty light if it is
to be worn. Neck muscles aren't that strong. We pause for a brief
explanation of how most personal body armor (PBA) works. (And, no, this
does not apply to Paladin PBA :-) ObLOS joke.) PBA works by absorbing
the kinetic energy of the bullet and redistributing it over a larger
surface area. Even armors that have "plates" in them do not depend on
those plates to ricochet the bullet. They are there to distribute the
impact over the area underneath the plates (which is usually ballistic
cloth which distributes it further.) The reason for this is as follows:
A theoretical "hard" armor - ie, one that "bounces" bullets rather
than
absorbing and redistributing the impact, would to this by attempting to
have a completely elastic collision with the bullet; one with *no* energy
transfer. This is well and good when you have a steel frame enclosed by
chobham. But this doesn't work with the human body. The human body will
always deform (in a physics sense) when impacted. Therefore, some energy
will be transfered. It is more efficient to design the armor to take
this into account when designing PBA, and attempt to dissipate as much of
the impact into the armor as possible.
Helmets. Helmets are, of course, "hard" armor, in that they are either
metal, or rigid plastic over a ballistic cloth liner. However, if they
are too rigid, they are going to shatter on impact. If they are not
rigid, they are going to transfer some energy to the head. How much
energy is required to break a neck? Or stun someone? Not much compared
to the likely bullet energy.
Nuff said for now.
>
> > > These rules sound good, but how do you handle a character with a very low
> > > Quickness (like 2)?
> >
> > I'd say you couldn't reduce quickness below 1, obviously. I also use Strength
> > as a factor: Strength + Quickness - total ballistic armour as the net penalty
> > when I bother at all.
>
> Hunh? Wearing armour, even heavy armour, reduces one's Combat Pool, not one's
> Quickness. The question I was asking was would you (or actually Quicksilver
> but anyhow :-)) give a character with a Quickness of 2 a -3 Combat Pool
> modifier for wearing an armour jacket?
>
No, because it is not layered. I probably wouldn't penalize him for
wearing simply layered armor. He'd have the buttocks if he tried to wear
an armor jacket and lined coat.
> > I just role-play discouraging armour: I don't know what things are like in
> > the States but banks etc. here have signs about motorcylcists having to
> > remove their helmets before coming in.
>
> Roleplaying it is a good idea I think. But I am looking for a mechanic for
> the situation of "we're gunna do a raid on that facility, so we wear as much
> armour as we can". Normal, non-combat, situations don't need this kind of
> mechanic, they can be role-played much better, but the direct combat
> situations need some kind of mechanic for it. [BTW, the signs are over here
> too :-)]
>
Um, don't run assaults? Works so far for me.
Chavez:"I want to see his eyes when it happens."
Clark:"So use a good scope on the rifle."
